Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council is mulling a plan to force the U.S. government to pay a penalty to energy companies if a president cancels fossil fuel or mining projects.
“Future administrations should not be able to say, ‘No, with the stroke of a pen we’re going to kill this pipeline project,’ even though that company has $3 billion in the ground,” Burgum said at the Hill and Valley Forum, in a nod to former President Joe Biden’s decision in 2021 to cancel a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
“We’re working on a plan at NEDC where we’ve got to have sovereign risk insurance — not against a foreign country but against our own,” he said.
Burgum continued: “If you put capital into a project that’s related to fossil fuels or a project related to critical minerals and mining … if somebody comes along in the future administration with an executive order, if they want to wipe out what you’ve invested in, they’ve got write you a check to pay you for your lost capital.”
